


Quiet Company

by alchemise



Category: Bloodbuzz Ohio - The National (Song)
Genre: Deal with a Devil, Ghosts, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-07 16:01:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18876478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alchemise/pseuds/alchemise
Summary: All debts must be paid.





	Quiet Company

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fleurlb](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fleurlb/gifts).



> Title taken from another National song you requested. ;)

He returned home, reluctantly.

Jacob had been avoiding Ohio for a decade now. Not that it did him much good, what with the piece of Ohio that followed him everywhere.

He looked over at Thomas ("Tommy" to his friends and to his more than friends) and regretted the thought. Tommy was more than just a piece of home, untethered from where he belonged (not that Jacob could claim to be anything but that himself). Tommy had been his one true love, once upon a very long time ago.

How far would you go to save someone you loved? Someone you'd loved and lost? Jacob never stopped asking himself these questions. How far was too far? He wouldn't know. He'd gone as far as anyone could conceivably go, but it hadn't gotten him very far. He was haunted by love only he could see. Haunted by a specter that never left him alone—his own personal ghost, punishing him for his failure.

And the cost of all this—this decade of dealing with the world's most dogged stalker: only his soul, of course.

It was time to settle things now. Erase old debts that did nothing but weigh on him. If it was even possible. Could you buy back a soul that had been sold? For a lousy bargain too, when all it had gotten him was this soundless ghost of love that trailed after him.

And if so, how much was one soul worth anyway?

Jacob figured there were varying measurements that could be taken to calculate that exchange rate. But it wasn't up to him to make the final decision. That power rested with the one he'd come to see in Ohio, the one who had made the bargain to begin with.

He glanced over at Tommy in the passenger seat, or rather, Tommy's ghost. If that's what he even was. He never spoke or expressed emotion or showed any sign that he'd once been human (and oh so human at that). He was just _always there_. Jacob thought he would get used to the ghost's presence in time, but ten years later it hadn't happened yet. He was so fucking tired of having to look at a face he'd once adored (and constantly remember all the stupid teenage hormone-filled things they'd gotten up to, daring each other to go further faster more more more). Their love had been intoxicating in all the best ways. Jacob had never known its like, although to be fair, it was a bit hard to pursue other people with a most dour ghost following you around everywhere.

It was time for this to end—his clock was up anyway—and so he drove his car across the state line, while filled with so much anxious anticipation at what would result that he found himself closing his eyes as he blew past the "Welcome to Ohio" sign.

He opened them a moment later (it wouldn't do to crash his car just as he was finally coming back to repay his debt—not to mention that doing so would probably ensure that his soul was the only payment possible, if he were to die here) and pulled the car off onto the shoulder and stopped it.

Ohio.

He tried not to think about it. About home. About what once was home but no longer.

He told himself there was nothing left for him there, no one to remember him if he were gone. There certainly wasn't family any longer; when Jacob had left, Tommy had been his only family—his blood—and Tommy had already been dead at that point. Tommy had been the only tie to Ohio he cared about.

It was just a stupid car accident, the kind that happened a thousand times a year. No one really at fault, just happenstance and bad luck. There had been a deer about to step into the road, a blind curve, and the inevitable loss of control that followed. It had taken away the only person Jacob had ever loved.

Later, he tried to tell himself that he hadn't meant to summon the "demon" or whatever it was. He had just been filled with so much grief that he hadn't been thinking straight. All he'd wanted was Tommy back, and any cost at all seemed a minor thing to pay compared to the loss he felt without Tommy.

He'd gone the traditional route, never believing it would work. A crossroads at midnight, a plea to whoever might hear, an offer of all he had to give.

Someone—or something—had heard and responded. It was a straightforward deal: his soul for the return of his love. For ten years time. Only the demon had cheated (of course the demon had cheated), and Tommy had been returned to him in this state, only a shadow of his former self. No vibrancy, no life. Just a pale shade that haunted Jacob.

As Jacob lost himself in nostalgia—tinged with grief and pain and something he wanted to call regret, but he wasn't sure—he became aware of a buzzing sound. It was like bees but not. He couldn't tell where it was coming from, but it was almost painful in the way it seemed to vibrate his skull.

It built with a crescendo that ended in a voice, or rather, something akin to a voice but that created no sound and definitely existed only in his head.

_YOU'VE RETURNED AS PROMISED. HOW UNUSUAL._

Its form appeared then, in the road in front of Jacob. He couldn't describe it, couldn't even comprehend it: all fog and darkness and malevolence.

He got out of the car to meet it with all the courage he could muster. Tommy's ghost followed at his side.

"I've come to make a deal."

_YOU ALREADY DID THAT._

Jacob thought the demon sounded wry, but since it was all in his head, who really knew. "I've come to offer you something else, something more than before, in exchange for me."

_WHAT COULD YOU POSSIBLY OFFER GREATER THAN YOUR SOUL?_

"Thousands of souls. An entire state of them." Jacob swung his arms wide, encompassing everything around them. "I'm offering you Ohio."

_AND WHAT RIGHT DO YOU HAVE TO SPEAK FOR THIS PLACE?_

"None; I'm not speaking for them. I'm giving you an opportunity. Something's coming—a, a cataclysm. And I'm the only one who knows about it. But you could be right there when it happens, ready to deal with all those desperate people trying to cling to more life."

_HOW COULD YOU KNOW THIS? HUMANS DO NOT POSSESS SUCH POWERS._

"You don't pay much attention to the people you bargain with, do you? Their interests? What they do for a living?"

The demon only stared at him. Jacob couldn't tell if it was annoyed, interested, or just bored. Demons, it turned out, were difficult creatures to read. Or maybe they didn't feel emotions at all in the way people understood them.

Jacob continued. "There's a fault line running under Ohio. Doesn't do much normally, but it's going to. And I know when. This is what I've spent ten years working on, studying this thing. No one else knows it's coming, and I made sure they wouldn't find out until it was too late. But I'll tell you, in exchange for you freeing my soul. If not, I warn the authorities, and most people will be able to evacuate safely."

The demon continued staring. Then its face shifted into something that could have been a demonic smile but to Jacob only looked like horror.

_I LIKE THE GALL OF YOUR PROPOSAL, HUMAN. I LOOK FORWARD TO THIS COMING DISASTER AND THE REWARDS IT WILL BRING. IF YOU BETRAY ME I WILL CONSUME YOU AND YOUR LOVE._

His love. Jacob looked at Tommy, standing ever by him. All of this had been for love once. A love he missed with every breath he took.

Back then, it had taken years for Jacob to admit he was in love with Tommy. Boys loving boys just wasn't the done thing where they grew up.

But Tommy made Jacob want to give into truths he'd resisted for so long. Eventually he had. He had no regrets about any of it.

_I'LL REMOVE YOUR GHOST NOW, YES?_

Jacob was startled by the question. "What? What do you mean?"

_THE ORIGINAL BARGAIN: YOUR SOUL IN EXCHANGE FOR THE PRESENCE OF YOUR LOVE. I ENJOYED THE RESULT, OF THIS HUMORLESS THING HAUNTING YOU FOR A DECADE. BUT WITH A NEW BARGAIN, THE PREVIOUS IS UNDONE. I WILL REMOVE THE GHOST._

Jacob again looked at Tommy, his hand instinctively reaching out, although there was nothing to touch. This had all been about Tommy. He wondered what he was doing, saving his own soul but with a new price of being fully alone. Was a ghost better than nothing?

"I… no, don't take him away. I want him to stay."

Even a demonic form could register surprise. Apparently the demon couldn't comprehend Jacob's decision.

_VERY WELL. HE IS YOURS FOR AS LONG AS YOU NATURALLY LIVE. ALL ELSE IS MINE. WHEN WILL THIS CATACLYSM OCCUR?_

Jacob told it the date and time his calculations had showed, and, with that, the demonic form was gone. The incessant buzzing disappeared with it.

Jacob couldn't stop staring at Tommy. _As long as he would naturally live_. They'd have a life together, in a way. All debts paid off, free to do what they chose. Or what Jacob chose, as Tommy remained a silent partner.

It was something, though. Something he could live with.

Jacob got back into his car, with Tommy ever beside him. He turned it around and drove across the state line, never looking back.


End file.
